Jasmin, one of this year’s trip participants, speaks about what she took away from the trip:

We also began a new partnership with Limitless Horizons Ixil in Chajul, Guatemala, and helped automate some of their work in order to free up the librarians for more individual support of community members.

We’re looking forward to making 2016 one of our best years yet! Thank you from all of us here at LWB.

Make a donation online. A donation of $15 will pay the Librarian’s salary for a day.

Spread the word: share this post with your friends and followers online through twitter, facebook or your blog.

Why are we doing this?
With our financial support, Asturias will be able to fill the Librarian position for the school year, ensuring that the Library can remain open to students and staff. Get more information here.

Librarians without Borders has received a generous donation from one of the Ottawa Public Library’s (OPL) Teen Advisory Groups (TAG). Based out of OPL’s Centennial branch, this group of socially conscious teens raised $175 to help support the literacy needs of students a half a world away.

Being heavy users and supporters of the Library, TAG members realized how big a hole their own lives would have if they did not have a library. They wanted to help other teens experience their love of books and the sense of community a library brings. On November 19th/2011, Centennial TAG held a two hour bake sale with contributions from TAG members, Centennial staff, and generous Centennial branch customers. In that short period of time, their community supported TAG’s efforts by purchasing $175 worth of cookies, tarts, and cupcakes! OPL’s customers, being huge supporters of the Library, were eager to chip in.

The donation will be put towards the Asturias Librarian Stipend Fund. The financial resources we gather will help bring a librarian to the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy Library in Xela, Guatemala. The presence of a full-time librarian will help the Academy supply the quality books and programming students need in order to learn.

On behalf of LWB and the Asturias Academy, thanks to the Centennial branch teens for reaching out! Special thanks to Andrea Gowing, the OPL staff member who facilitates the group.

Being able to borrow books from my school was something neither my parents or me had ever heard of, but it’s so great. My friends and I started a reading club, to help everyone pick out books.
– Alejandra , 4th grade student at the Asturias Academy

Librarians Without Borders (LWB) is establishing the Asturias Librarian Stipend Fund: a financial resource that will help to bring a Librarian to the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy Library in Xela, Guatemala.

The Asturias Academy is committed to providing long term library support to staff and students within the school. This marks the first time Asturias will bring in a trained Librarian on a long term basis, providing a new opportunity to offer services, programs, and to train teachers, community members and students on library operations. This will greatly assist Asturias with achieving their mission and goals of building a sustainable community library in Xela.

LWB has partnered with the Asturias Academy since 2009 to support the Academy’s vision to build a Library in the school. This vision was realized in January 2011, when the Library finally opened its doors. In the next phase of the project LWB is committed to supporting the long term success of the library by financially supporting the implementation of a full-time librarian at the school. With our financial support, Asturias will be able to fill the Librarian position for the upcoming school year, ensuring that the Library can remain open to students and staff throughout the year.

By delivering library programming, curriculum support and library training sessions, Asturias hopes to foster strong literacy skills and a love of reading among its students, their families and patrons of the community. By combining this with a unique curriculum and pedagogy, it is able to create informed, critically thinking, socially conscious citizens that ultimately emerge as empowered and engaged leaders in their communities.

Challenges

Most Guatemalans are restricted from getting a quality education, in part due to a severe lack of access to books and literacy materials. In a country where books are taxed beyond the reach of the 75% of the population who live in poverty, it is almost impossible to get low-income children excited about reading because they cannot get actual books in their hands. This year, Guatemalan public schools were only able to supply math books to 6th graders, leaving all other students without books to study.

Potential Long Term Impact

The Asturias Library will allow Asturias students, their families, and the communities access to books and internet resources, allowing the community, most of whom live off less than $3 a day, to lift themselves out of poverty and pursue higher education. Access to a library can cause a ripple effect in the community by fostering a life long love of reading and increase in literacy among the next generation of Guatemalans.

Recent Posts

Librarians Without Borders is not in any way affiliated with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. Doctors Without Borders is a registered trademark of Bureau International de Médecins Sans Frontières.
Librarians Without Borders is powered by WordPress